Preface
About the Authors
CHAPTER 1 What Is Language?
Linguistic Knowledge
Knowledge of the Sound System
Knowledge of Words
Arbitrary Relation of Form and
Meaning
The Creativity of Linguistic
Knowledge
Knowledge of Sentences and
Nonsentences
Linguistic Knowledge and
Performance
What IsGrammar?
Descriptive Grammars
Prescriptive Grammars
Teaching Grammars
Universal Grammar
The Development of Grammar
Sign Languages: Evidence for
Language Universals
What Is Not (Human) Language
The Birds and the Bees
Can Animals Learn Human
Language?
Language and Thought
Summary
References for Further Reading
Exercises
CHAPTER 2 Morphology: The Words of Language
Content Words and Function Words
Morphemes: The Minimal
Units of Meaning
The Discreteness of Morphemes
Bound and Free Morphemes
Prefixes and Suffixes
Infixes
Circumfixes
Roots and Stems
Bound Roots
Rules of Word Formation
Derivational Morphology
Inflectional Morphology
The Hierarchical Structure of Words
Rule Productivity
Exceptions and Suppletions
Lexical Gaps
Other Morphological Processes
Back-Formations
Compounds
"Pullet Surprises"
Sign Language Morphology
Morphological Analysis: Identifying
Morphemes
Summary
References for Further Reading
Exercises
Chapter 3 Syntax: The Sentence Patterns of Language
Chapter 4 The Meaning of Language
Chapter 5 Phonetics: The Sounds of Language
Chapter 6 Phonology: The Sound Patterns of Language
Chapter 7 Language in Society
Chapter 8 Language Change: The Syllables of Time
Chapter 9 Language Acquisition
Chapter 10 Language Processing and the Human Brain
Chapter 11 Computer Processing of Human Language
Chapter 12 Writing: The ABCs of Language
Glossary
Index